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Washington Policy Blog

In the midst of organized labor’s demands for a $15 minimum wage for all workers comes the revelation that they do not pay this so-called “living” wage to their employees.

The Washington Timesreports that as big labor bosses are boasting of their $15 minimum wage successes at the AFL-CIO’s annual summer meeting, at least one usher working the event told the reporter she did not earn $15 per hour.

Today the state Attorney General filed the state’s answer to Superintendent Randy Dorn’s brief to the state Supreme Court in the McCleary case, adding to the post-legislative-session reports to the Court about school funding. The AG sharply criticizes the Superintendent’s plan to shut down government, pointing out Dorn’s plan would cause children to go hungry:

Yesterday the Michigan Supreme Court upheld that state’s new right-to-work law with its ruling that state workers are subject to the law. This means public employees are subject to the same protections from forced unionism as those in private industries.

One of the main goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, is to decrease rising health care costs. The ACA allocated $10 billion to establish the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, a government organization charged with centrally planning health care delivery.

Last week Greg Devereux, Executive Director of the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), revealed he, and other union executives, believe unions will likely lose the Freidichs v California case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The loss would render forced unionism for public employees illegal; individual workers would have the right to decide for themselves whether to join a union and pay union dues.

Greg Devereux, Executive Director of the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), recently revealed he, and other union executives, believe the era of forced unionism for public sector workers is coming to an end. And surprisingly, he doesn’t think it will be the union-crippling catastrophe unions have long-claimed.

As fast food employers in the state of New York brace for that state’s impending $15 wage mandate, one business owner succinctly explained what the high wage will mean for her business and her employees:

It really is going to come to less people. What I envision is cutting labor, hiring less people, having less people per shift.”

In a recent Facebook post, education policy leader Rep. Chad Magendanz (R-Issaquah) noted that state supreme court justices may soon decide to impose a punishment on him and fellow lawmakers for failing to fund public schools. He asks readers, “What do you feel might be appropriate sanctions for the Court to impose at this point?”

Danny Westneat’s Seattle Times column on phasing out single-family housing in Seattle drew over 250 comments within the first three hours of being posted online. By the next day, readers had logged over 700 more. Why is a column about housing in Seattle drawing such a large response? A proposal by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s housing task force suggests officials may want to make sweeping changes to many of Seattle’s neighborhoods.